The Fifa Superthread; Corruption, Arrests and Sepp Blatter's Resignation!

Oat23

Who are they going to get to pronounce the names of the teams nobody has ever heard of that are taking part in the first qualifying round of the europa league?

This is the important question.

Skylinehead

Well, at least he's not Sheikh Salman. That's all I've got.

dreamers75

Yes!!!!!!!!

Harry Palmr

I have no idea whether this fella is utterly corrupt and a grafter for hire or the best thing since FIFA was founded but I expect nothing much will change at a fundamental level.

TheTownie

Tis a small world Ted

sportingintelligence ‏@sportingintel 26m26 minutes ago
Infantino comes from a Swiss village called Brig. The next village along, Visp, is home to ... Sepp Blatter.

TheTownie

I suppose a wee blurb about him might interest some.

The 45-year-old UEFA general secretary, a lawyer and sports administrator who joined European football's governing body in 2000 and rose through the ranks...

He is credited with running UEFA's day-to-day operations during its commercial boom. In his pre-election speech on Friday, he spoke in five different languages for the first 75 seconds without notes and portrayed himself as a leader for the world, not just his own wealthy confederation...

BorneTobyWilde

Chairman of Fa on sky news
' a surprising result, but we placed our bets last night ,happy with result''
Why blurt that out. Did they literally place bets on this outcome.
WTF

BorneTobyWilde

Blatter now the puppet master
Dance infantino dance
You're a real boy now

mickmackey1

Champagne fell flat with no votes

DrumSteve

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Chairman of Fa on sky news
' a surprising result, but we placed our bets last night ,happy with result''
Why blurt that out. Did they literally place bets on this outcome.
WTF

I very much doubt they literally placed bets on this.

Benimar

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Chairman of Fa on sky news
' a surprising result, but we placed our bets last night ,happy with result''
Why blurt that out. Did they literally place bets on this outcome.
WTF

It doesn't mean that. It means they announced they were supporting Infantino last night. They figuratively gambled that he would beat Salman.

Jelle1880

TheTownie wrote: »

I suppose a wee blurb about him might interest some.

Could have added he's been Platini's right hand man for years.

He seems better, but I remain skeptical that anything will actually change.

Lukker-

New Fifa President Infantini has been linked to dodgy TV deals from his time at Uefa through the Panama Papers leak.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/05/panama-papers-pull-fifa-uefa-chief-gianni-infantino-corruption-scandal

TheTownie

Swiss police have raided UEFA HQ today following Panama Papers leaks.

Richard Conway ‏@richard_conway 2h2 hours ago
Breaking: Swiss police raid Uefa. Uefa statement police "requesting sight of the contracts between UEFA + Cross Trading / Teleamazonas"

https://twitter.com/richard_conway/status/717718316215832576

And also a FIFA ethics committee member resigned today.

Richard Conway ‏@richard_conway 29m29 minutes ago
Breaking: Juan Pedro Damiani resigns as member of Fifa ethics committee. Faced internal investigation following #panamapaper leak. [AFP]

~Rebel~

Seems Infantini signed off on the sale of the Champions League TV rights to 2 guys who immediately resold them for treble the price.

TheTownie

Infantino issues statement

https://twitter.com/richard_conway/status/717773762041610240

TheTownie

FIFA continues to be a disgrace.

Infantino allegedly tried to erase meeting minutes.

https://twitter.com/NBCSportsSoccer/status/738450021821997056

and more allegations of illegal payments to Blatter and co.

https://twitter.com/richard_conway/status/738727152728846337

rob316

Disband the whole thing and start a new one. It is rotten to the core, Infantino now aswell.

UnitedIrishman

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/status/738717139905961984

Nice of them to pay themselves World Cup 2014 bonuses (in 2011) and World Cup 2018 bonuses (in 2014). Exactly what could those cretins have done to earn that money?

Mr.Nice Guy

Our old friend Sepp is back in the headlines, dishing some dirt:

Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former Fifa president, has claimed he witnessed the fixing of a draw for a European football competition.

Blatter, in an interview with Argentinian newspaper La Nacion, did not elaborate on which competition he believed was rigged, but said he had seen a practice whereby the balls containing team names were cooled to make their identification possible when being picked out.

Blatter said only one team had benefitted from such a practice and he distanced himself and Fifa from any involvement, instead suggesting that it had happened not on Fifa’s patch, but under European governing body Uefa’s jurisdiction.

Asked specifically by La Nacion about the draw for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which was favourable for Argentina, Blatter said: “The draw was clean down to the last detail. I never touched the balls, something that others did.

“Of course it’s possible that they can be signalled, by heating or cooling them. It doesn’t happen in Fifa, but I’ve witnessed draws at European level where it has happened, but never in Fifa.

“Of course it can be done, but it never happened under my watch, never.”

Blatter explained how a ‘blind’ draw could be fixed, saying, “Balls are put in the freezer before the draw, at the slightest touch you can tell if the balls are hot or cold.

“By touching them you know exactly what you have.”

The Swiss, who turned 80 in March this year, is currently serving a six-year ban from all football-related activity. He is appealing the sanctions through the court of arbitration for sport.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/14/sepp-blatter-european-competition-draw-was-rigged-by-cooling-balls

I remember hearing rumours about rigged draws due to the temperature of the balls drawn and thinking it sounded far-fetched.

If it happened on UEFA's watch it's hard to believe it didn't happen on FIFA's watch too.

Billy86

Asked specifically by La Nacion about the draw for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which was favourable for Argentina, Blatter said: “The draw was clean down to the last detail. I never touched the balls, something that others did.

In other words: yes it was fixed and I knew about it, but I'm going it say it never happened and I am going to say I had nothing to do with it happeni never happening.

bucketybuck

Amazing how the head of world football could actually see a draw being rigged and yet somehow feel it wasn't his place to do anything about it.

Its like the CEO of McDonalds stopping in somewhere for a burger, seeing the local manager spitting on the food but deciding not to do anything about it.

Says a lot about the disconnect between Blatter and reality that he feels comfortable telling a story that shows him up to be incompetent.

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Chuck Blazer has died.

Link

FatherTed

Tyler Deep Yak wrote: »

Chuck Blazer has died.

Link

Chuck Blazer was quite the character. He started out in grassroots soccer in NY and gradually rose to near the top of Concacaf. I think at one point he did have some redeeming qualities but the money and the power got to him as happens in a lot of cases.

He somehow was able to set up a situation where he got 10% of Concacaf revenue for his "consulting services". He even had an appartment in Trump tower in NYC paid for by Concacaf at $6000/month for his cats. Yes his cats.

Then there is this story:

On a February evening in 1986, more than 8,200 people crammed into Ft. Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium to watch a band of local all-stars lose to the Canadian national team, 2–0. In that sleepier era of American soccer, with little popular interest in the game, it was standing room only for a meaningless exhibition in a run-down venue.

Before kickoff, the Canadians had to belt out their own national anthem from midfield, because nobody had thought to bring a recording. Star-spangled uniforms donated to the South Florida International All-Stars never arrived, so they borrowed some from a local amateur squad.

The fans didn’t mind. The match itself was incidental; they were there to honor Colin “Panther” Fowles, a former area pro who had been killed by a stray bullet during a pickup game the previous August. His supporters happily forked over $4 for tickets: Proceeds would benefit Allison Fowles and her three young daughters.

But the grieving widow would receive less than hoped, thanks to a ruling by a United States Soccer Federation executive in New York. He argued that bylaws guaranteed the USSF a cut of the gate for any match involving an international team on American soil. Organizers pleaded for a waiver, arguing that Fowles’ widow sorely needed help, but the federation’s executive vice president would not relent.

Chuck Blazer insisted on 10%.

RIH mothafkr

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/the-rise-and-fall-of-chuck-blazer-the-man-who-built-and-bilk?utm_term=.ltMw5rYvm#.oe9nvNbxR

HalloweenJack

The Spanish federation boss, also a Senior Vice President of FIFA, has been arrested on embezzlement charges.

He's also been fined by FIFA for refusing to cooperate with the 2018 investigation, which is slightly odd on his part as he was leading a bid for Spain and Portugal so it could be in his interest to spill the beans on the Russia bid if he knows anything.

Beefy78

I suspect that all the bids were crooked. It's just some that were more crooked than others. There's no innocent victims here - it's greed old men being greedy.